This invention relates generally to archery equipment, and more particularly to a wrist strap adaptable to a variety of different connectors associated with different bowstring release mechanisms.
Many accessories for archery bows are available for facilitating bow handling, stabilizing the bow during use, improving aiming accuracy, and so on. Once such accessory is in the form of a wrist strap with an attached bowstring release. Archery bowstrings of compound bows typically have pull forces on the order of about 40 to 90 pounds. The use of wrist straps has become common to accommodate these large forces which have the potential to cause possible injury to the archer's fingers. A wrist strap removes the force of the bowstring that would otherwise be present on the fingers and spreads the force over a relatively large surface area of the wrist and the back of the archer's hand while leaving at least the thumb or index finger of the hand free to activate the trigger mechanism of the bowstring release.
Since the hands and wrists of archers come in many different shapes and sizes, wrist straps and their accompanying string release mechanisms are typically adjustable to accommodate as many archers as possible. Various prior art solutions for connecting the bowstring release mechanism to the wrist strap can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,753,043, 7,278,415, 5,596,977, 5,595,167, and 5,448,983 the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Such solutions have different connecting arrangements between a particular bowstring release mechanism and a particular wrist strap, and therefore are not interchangeable. When a wrist strap and/or bowstring release mechanism of the prior art breaks or becomes worn or otherwise unsuitable for use, and due to the different connecting arrangements of each solution, the user was required to purchase a new replacement part from the original manufacturer or purchase a new wrist strap with attached bowstring release from another manufacturer. For example, if the wrist strap became worn or broken, the user would be required to purchase a new wrist strap to go with the remaining useful parts, such as the bowstring release mechanism, due to the unique connection arrangement between the wrist strap and release mechanism. If it was desirous to change out the old worn or broken wrist strap for another wrist strap that was more suitable to the user's preference, the user would have to purchase the desired wrist strap with a new release mechanism. In this instance, the release mechanism may not be preferred by the user. Until the present invention, there has been no provision in the prior art to replace a worn or broken wrist strap with a more suitable wrist strap for the user independent of the type of release mechanism being used.
Accordingly, it would be desirous to provide a universal wrist strap that is adaptable to various different connecting arrangements between the bowstring release mechanism and wrist strap.